Serving wine at the right temperature is important – you can kill a white wine by over-chilling it, just as you can murder a red by serving it too warm. In general we serve our whites too cold and our reds too hot, so here’s a few tips on the subject.
The most important thing, of course, is a bit of forward planning, especially for a barbecue or a party. When it comes to chilling quantities of white wine, you can’t start too early. If you put a dozen bottles of wine in the average fridge you’ll bring the temperature inside up by several degrees at first so plan on at least two hours.
If the forward planning department has met with unforeseen circumstances, you can squeeze a few bottles in the freezer to get you started and rotate with what’s in the fridge. If you’ve plenty of ice then quickest of all is to put loads of it in with the bottles in a large plastic container and then fill with water. It’s much quicker with water than just using the ice as the whole surface area of the bottles is covered – an hour is usually ample. Put the bottles in bags to prevent the labels slipping off.
If you’re completely banjaxed for a glass of chilled white or rosé like … NOW! pour a glassful into a Ziploc bag and put it in the freezer for a couple of minutes. You did seal the bag, didn’t you?
All this applies equally to light reds of course (and you can generally halve the times) but if you’ve got the opposite problem and your wine is too cold then by all means use the oven if you have to, set to minimum and carefully monitored – just don’t say I told you!